It is necessary to understand what happened in order not to be swayed into unbased conclusions , we have to affirm that we are in no way with the short sighted and western financed rebellion that took place in Libya.
We have to acknowledge that Kaddhafi did not deprive the Libyans from adequate means of life compared to other countries , but we should not forget that the... Libyans did not live such a fancy life , big amounts of money remained after meeting peoples ‘ minimum needs and this money remained with Kaddafi and he made personal use of it instead of spending it on his people and on bettering life in Libya. This money- or part of it- was spent in promoting the image of Kaddafi in places like Africa and elsewhere where the cost of such promotion campaign was not very high .
A comparison with other presidents can help understand more , a leader like Khomeini did not even own the carpet that was used in his house , when he passed away his family returned the carpet , president Evo Morales of Bolivia cashes only half his salary while president Ahmadinejad cashes no salary at all ,for lunch the Iranian President eats a cheese sandwich prepared by his wife and sleeps on the floor , Lebanese previous prime minister Salim el Hoss- known for his honesty and integrity- had his chauffeur drive him all the way back to the ministry when he realized- upon resigning- that he had forgotten to give back the pen that he has been using and which belonged to the ministry . Maybe we are asking too much from Kaddhafi but we wanted to compare him to the better rulers and not the bad ones , and unfortunately Kaddhafi does not fare well in this comparison . Though he did not deprive Libyans from their basic needs he was more generous when his image was at stake with foreign people and Africans, he was more generous with Beyonce than with his own people . Everything had to revolve around him and around his children , when his son was arrested in Switzerland because he mistreated his housekeeper he organized in Libya a demonstration against Switzerland. We had never seen him set against Israel the way we have seen him set against Switzerland. A true leader cannot buy fame and name and cannot become bigger than his country and people.